Imaging is one methodology for sensing objects in a scene by capturing reflected or transmitted light. Stereoscopic imaging is a common methodology in nature and in machine vision for sensing object position and orientation in 3 dimensions. Stereo imaging has many limitations, particularly for transmitted light imaging, such as x-ray imaging. Measuring object orientation information from a single image generally depends on the capability to model the object imaged, including any relevant features or characteristics of the object which can be captured by imaging. A variety of image processing and machine vision techniques have been proposed to address specific orientation measurement problems, with varying degrees of success.
A longstanding problem in clinical orthopedics is establishing appropriate rotational alignment of an artificial hip socket, or acetabular component, in a patient during hip replacement surgery. Various systems and methods have been developed which utilize image processing to assist in this procedure, with limited success. Several proposed systems rely almost completely on the human identification of landmarks in the image and essentially use the image processing as simply tracing paper on top of an X-ray image. Accuracy, reliability, and repeatability of such methods are inherently fallible and adoption has been limited.
A longstanding problem in sports is the reliability of officiating of close calls during play. One such problem, for the sport of basketball, is determining whether the ball had or had not been touched by a player at a particular point in time.